In this special episode of Motion Matters, we dive deep into the life of Erick Allen, also known as EA, the founder of Affirmations for Recovery. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Erick faced numerous challenges from a young age, including poverty, family struggles, and personal traumas. Despite these obstacles, he has transformed his life and now dedicates his energy to helping others through his powerful affirmations and recovery programs.
I explore Erick's journey from his difficult childhood to becoming a beacon of hope and recovery. We discuss his upbringing in Portland, the impact of his family dynamics, and the early experiences that shaped his outlook on life. Erick’s candid reflections provide a raw and inspiring look at his path to self-discovery and resilience.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into overcoming adversity, the importance of positive energy, and the power of affirmations in personal recovery. Erick’s story underscores the significance of perseverance, the impact of a supportive community, and the transformative power of mindset. For anyone interested in personal growth, recovery, and building a positive life, this episode offers practical advice and profound inspiration.
Contact EA: HERE
References:
- Affirmations for Recovery
- Portland, Oregon
- Faith and Prayer
Three Potential Listener Questions:
1. How can I use affirmations to overcome personal challenges and achieve recovery?
2. What are effective strategies for maintaining a positive mindset in difficult times?
3. How did Erick Allen transform his life from adversity to becoming a recovery advocate?
https://www.visioninmotion.co
In this special episode of Motion Matters, we dive deep into the life of Erick Allen, also known as EA, the founder of Affirmations for Recovery. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Erick faced numerous challenges from a young age, including poverty, family struggles, and personal traumas. Despite these obstacles, he has transformed his life and now dedicates his energy to helping others through his powerful affirmations and recovery programs.
I explore Erick's journey from his difficult childhood to becoming a beacon of hope and recovery. We discuss his upbringing in Portland, the impact of his family dynamics, and the early experiences that shaped his outlook on life. Erick’s candid reflections provide a raw and inspiring look at his path to self-discovery and resilience.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into overcoming adversity, the importance of positive energy, and the power of affirmations in personal recovery. Erick’s story underscores the significance of perseverance, the impact of a supportive community, and the transformative power of mindset. For anyone interested in personal growth, recovery, and building a positive life, this episode offers practical advice and profound inspiration.
Contact EA: HERE
References:
- Affirmations for Recovery
- Portland, Oregon
- Faith and Prayer
Three Potential Listener Questions:
1. How can I use affirmations to overcome personal challenges and achieve recovery?
2. What are effective strategies for maintaining a positive mindset in difficult times?
3. How did Erick Allen transform his life from adversity to becoming a recovery advocate?
https://www.visioninmotion.co
Again, back to the earlier comment, there's 24 hours in a day. You use them how you deem worthy, but at the end of the day, there's still only 24. Welcome to Motion Matters, where we shine a light on the entrepreneurial journey, sharing real stories of triumph and challenge. Guided by Jamie Tilka, we connect, inspire, and educate. This is Motion Matters. Good evening from the great state of North Carolina and welcome to Motion Matters. This is the entrepreneurial podcast where we talk about the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship. And today is pretty freaking cool. This is about as spontaneous as it can possibly get. Hello. Joined a new app today, connected with my special guest here, goes by EA. And we said, let's do a podcast. And he said, let's do it today. So right now, with no preparation whatsoever, I would like to give an opportunity for EA to introduce yourself, give us a little bit about your background and tell us how you got into entrepreneur. So my name is EA, but my government, like if you're writing a check, Eric Allen, that's what my mother named me, Eric Allen, but EA is really like, I use that as a, as a talking like a way to build conversation every day, all day, because that's the kind of attitude, the mentality you have to have to do anything, no matter what you're doing, you got to be every day, all day with it. So that's me. Right. I'm a licensed mental health, substance abuse counselor. I reside in the state of Oregon. So I love, I love just talking about recovery, the whole mission of recovery, recovery is a mindset. It's not, it's not a substance, right? So people always get that, you know, misconstrued. Like when I say I work in recovery, they're like, well, you know, I don't got no problem. Everybody in life needs recovery from something, you know what I'm saying? From even, even if it's just bad ways of thinking, like sometimes people just have a negative thought process and you might need recovery from that. I'm your guy. That's what I do. So I'm a, I'm a husband, I'm a God-fearing man, and I'm an entrepreneur. Most of them, I'm a serial entrepreneur. Mm. Yeah. Talking my language, man. Yes, sir. Talking my language. Yes, sir. So, but let's go back a little bit deeper, man. So where'd you grow up? What I'm assuming you got out of the school. What was your first job? When you think about like little kids school and stuff, I haven't had a job. I was, you know, my first job was selling drugs. Ah. Yeah. If I got in the streets and, and I, and I started hustling, I come from a drug abused home. And a lot of my, my, you know, the people I grew up living with, they, they suffer from drug abuse. So I saw it a different way. I was like, okay, I'm gonna create a business this way. Nice man. So that, that inspired you to create the business that you're currently doing today. Absolutely. It inspired me because, you know, I put a lot of work in, in that, in that lifestyle and destroyed a lot of, a lot of, you know, homes and a lot of sectors of the community. So, you know, when I had the revelations, when I went to God and I went to, you know, I went to God humbly and asked him just like, God, lead me where, wherever you want me. And he was just like, let's, let's start rebuilding that community that you once destroyed. Right. So, nice. So I'm there, I'm there, I've been there and I've been studying, you know, I studied people. I got my degree in sociology, which is really studying the, you know, people studying stats and data. Yeah. So I went to Portland state. I grew up in the mean streets of Portland, Portland, Oregon. Yes. I've been there a few times. Yes. It's a beautiful place. We get all four seasons. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So, so if I'm picking up what you're laying down there, there was no W-2 job. Nope. There was not one that I could, that I could say that I could tell you that inspired me or anything. You know, I had, you know, school jobs. I worked for like McDonald's, I believed in, you know, in the beginning, but no real memories because when I was there, I was hustling. So I was, I was doing the wrong thing at McDonald's, right? Yeah. You were selling. I was doing the wrong thing. So I'm saying I wasn't really working that kind of job for the, for the purpose of working a job. Right. Right. Right. So you, you said that you had your epiphany and I love that because I think a lot of us, or I think you said a revelation to stick with your vernacular. So can you pull that back a little bit more? Like, like what was that moment? Like give it. Yeah. Yes. Well, I had, you know, the revelation was, I was in the street life, you know, I had, I had been arrested a few times and I had got to the point where even the rest didn't scare me like that. That was not, that did nothing for me. I could still run a business from anywhere, but what woke me up one day is when I had a discovery because any, any, any true criminal or any person has been in trouble with the law, you know what a discovery is. So I got my last discovery and it said Eric Allen versus the United States of America. That took me to a whole nother level. Like I've always had Eric Allen versus the state of Oregon or state of whoever. That's a different fight. That's a lawyer. Get in there. When you go against the United States of America, that's the federal government, right? We don't play with the federal government. Their conviction rate is 90%, 98%. Those are, those are high stats right there. That's a, that's an epiphany in itself, right? So then what happened then? Because so did you, sorry, I got a ton of questions, A, did you or did you not lose that discovery and B, what was that epiphany? Like I, I, the epiphany was that you got the thing, but what I'm saying is how did you come to that? Yeah. Yeah. Give me some. Okay. So what happened was during the selling drug era, I was going to cities where I could conquer. I could, you know, I was doing really big things in the city. So these cities in Oregon, they're like, you know, more white, like if you would put it in a, in a classification standpoint, it'd probably be 90% white and 10% black, right? Or 10% other. So in those communities, you, you become a vigilante easily. Like you can just jaywalk and then have your head for jaywalking. So that's kind of what it was. I was doing a lot of, you know, I was making a lot of moves in that community. They couldn't touch me in the statewide. So what they did was they sick, they sick, that discovery that they, they, they pushed me through the federal government system based on my history. I've already, I had already had a lot of convictions. I've already been in trouble enough that I could qualify for a federal case just based on my history. Wow. So when it come down to it, long story short, it didn't necessarily fit the criteria for a federal case. So it got really weak. It was very weak. It got dropped. They came at me with a deal that I couldn't refuse. They pushed it back to the state and gave me probation and I took it. But I, I spent 10 months in their jail in a, in a small white community. It's a movie in itself. I was in an all white community and I was pushing the racism card because that's all I had, you know? Cause it was like a black man. They was, there was the D that they were saying I did, I did not do, you know what I'm saying? So it was just like, I was guilty of doing things. But that particular thing that they said I did, I did not do. They were just trying to hang me. You know what I mean? They were just like, man, we want you out of our community. Period. Okay. So that, it sounds to me like, you know, you got off without getting the maximum punishment and during that time you were like, I got to change my ways. And come on man. 10 months in this all white, I mean, we're going to call it what it was. It was an all white, it was an all white community. So I was locked up cause the feds, cause they, when you, when you go through the feds, they can put you anywhere they want you. So they decided to put me in that same community. I was in a local jail in that community. So the community was like I just said, 90% white. So everybody, even the other population, the people that were locked up were white and some of it was racism. I had to experience that. I had to go through a lot, but you know, I'm here, I'm beautiful. You know, you know, my success rate was really good. Well, yeah, you're here, man. Yeah. I'm a lover, not a fighter. So we found each other on the same platform. So that's, you're doing big shit. Oh, WWL, L man for the today's working entrepreneur. If you don't got Al, you sleep and I want to wake you up today. Boom. Yes. Just drop that. So you said that you wanted to help. You said that God gave you your revelation. Yes. Amen to that. And that he provoked you. But like, how did that in your tangible human form, like what came to your mind is, is how did you, so how did you start everything? Like where did you start building your business? The blessing, the blessing of it was I was already in school before. Okay. All this happened. I was, I had always, always wanted to be an educated man. So I went to school and even while I was taking on, you know, the, the fast life, I was still smart enough to know to go to school. So I was doing school in spurts. I do, I do a semester here, semester there. So I had college credits. So I was always, and then in the city of Oregon, we have a drug and alcohol program. If you complete it in two years, then you get your, you know, you're eligible to get your counselor, your counselor, your certifications and counseling and whatever. Oh, okay. I slid in that program before everything went bad. And then once everything went bad, I went to jail a few times and dah, dah, dah, dah. And then once, once I had the revelation, I just dusted off everything that I had already been put in place, it was already in place. So it just made it that much easier. How'd you start your business though? How'd you put it together? Did you have to get cash? Did you have to get relationships? How did you start putting that together? Relationships, my whole business relationship driven, like, you know, as a counselor, you know, you gotta have, you gotta build relationships. My services are with people, right? So in order for me to operate and function, I gotta have people. That's, that's, that's my, that's the nature of my business is being able to serve people. So how I started my business was like working for other people, like, you know, establishing myself within a community where I can be seen and say, okay, when you do this, okay. And I was doing it for somebody else because success is a team sport. You gotta, you gotta come into this with the mindset of like, okay, if you don't got millions and billions of dollars, then you either going to join a team and then grow within or, or my only suggestion is to go, is to join a team that's actually operating, is doing what you're doing and then learn the actual day in and day out, the mechanics is what I call it. Learn the mechanics before you decide to say, okay, I can do this on my own because there's a lot of, there's a lot of behind the scenes things that people do not know, understand, care to, care to even think about, but it's the mechanics. Look EA, that's exactly why I wanted to do this podcast because, you know, I'm not going to go deep into it, but what I'll just say is during the past five years of us building what we did, my wife and I almost got divorced twice, multiple times where I seriously considered walking away, like looking at the bank account, there's $3, I'm trying to figure out what the hell we're going to do. Damn it. Yeah. It's tough. And so that's why I'm here. That's why I want to hear your story. I want to hear other people's story is because I'm hoping that somebody else is going to listen and be like, dang EA was in that position yet he still pulled his pants up and said, let's get this shit done. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, so look, let me, so let me give you some, some fast forward just recently right now. Right. For the last two years, I actually decided after all the smoke clear, got my licenses and everything. I decided to go actually work with a W-2 job, right? I actually was working with a counseling agency. I just recently left that job April 1st, I stepped out on faith. I couldn't take it. I couldn't watch myself being paid, you know, by the hour while this company is billing for my services at a different rate. So it just, it, you know, I just, I had enough. Can we, can we pause right there? I tell you why I want to pause right there, literally just had this conversation with a family member today. Like tell me what that moment was like that moment in which you said to yourself, I ain't going to do this no more. I'm going to step out because that's scary for a lot of people because they're comfortable. You see what I'm saying? And they're like, I don't want to give up my money. So no, I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep it one, so 1 million with you, right? Do it. It was, it was God. I prayed about it and God just put me in a position. He knew that I would never walk away like just straight because they was paying me. I love that. I'll find a way to do the job. I might not be happy, but I'll do it. So we, they, they basically, we severed ties peacefully where God just let, he made me step out on faith. He made me, he was like, you know, you, you said you wanted this, so I'm going to do this. And then in the same day, I did it April 1st, April fool's day. I got a, I got a contract on my own that supplementing half of the pay that I, that I made from that company. I already made half on the first day, bro. If that, if that ain't a sign, right? I mean, Hey, I'm a prayerful person, man. I'm a God fearing man. No matter who you see, what you subscribe to, if it's juggler witnesses, Buddha, I met some great people that follow some, follow what they follow. I don't have a heaven or hell to put nobody in. So I don't go that route with nobody, whatever works for you. I encourage you to work it as long as it keeps you with, with, with good energy. It keeps you loving people, man. I applaud your effort. Yeah. So that's my first order of business. I go that route with any and everything like prayers is, is, is the top thing that I do. It's the top thing that I encourage anybody to do. If you're in business, if you're an entrepreneur, if you are in a marriage, you're in a relationship, whatever the case may be, you better make sure you seek a source, the source, right? Yeah. I love it, man. I always ask this question and now that, so April 1st, you step out on faith. You went a contract that supports 50% of what you were already making. Congratulations. That's amazing. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. I always ask this question. Have you up to this point or are you currently seeking any type of member mentorship? And if so, how valuable is that to you as an entrepreneur? I think mentorship, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm very unorthodox because I've been so self-employed. I've been that person. I've been that driven from the selling drugs to the, the small businesses that I've started. I've had a record business. I've been, you know, I've been signed to Warner brothers. I've done a lot of things on my own, so it's hard for me to, to, to look up and get mentorship for people. That's just me personally, but I do welcome it. And for me to do it now, it has to be somebody that's at that, you know, at a different level that, that, that, that I'm hoping to get to. Mentorship is about, you know, getting, getting wisdom from people that's been there that had the experience. Exactly. Exactly. So I've been at the top of my food chain so long. I just, I've been, you know, people come to me, they've been coming to me for so long. I've been that person. It's hard for me to, you know, it's been hard for me because time is one of those currencies that, you know, people take for granted. They under, they undervalue that because time is way more important than the actual money that or the whatever you're getting, because you can't get that time back. It's the one resource that we all have the exact same amount of, and, and a lot of us use it ill-advised. Like, I can speak for me. I have over the years, just given my time, you know, where, where, where it wasn't reciprocated or it wasn't valued or it wasn't, wasn't, wasn't. And that's just, you know, I'm done with that. And that's what I talk about in my practice is, is, is how to overcome that. And I made a nice foundation, you know, just by helping people help themselves. Yeah. No, I love it, man. I mean, that's part of the reason why I started my business as well is because I very much get energized and very much feel fulfilled watching other people, you know, live out their, their passion and their dreams and putting it into action. That is so huge. Because honestly, EA, like there's not a ton of people that I've run into that come at this with the same energy level that you have. You see what I'm saying? Like, it's not that they're not aspirational. It's that they don't have that top, that risk tolerance, right? Because I tell people I jump out of the airplane without the shoe and then I figure out how am I going to land, right? That's... I like that. I like that. So... My man, he jump out the plane. I'm just jumping. Damn it. I don't care. Yeah. You know, wherever I land, I know I'm going to land. That's somebody that's driven by faith. That's why you know that. Yeah. You the man. You the man. I like you. I love you. I even love you more today than I did yesterday. Yeah. I didn't even know you yesterday. So it was like, shit, I got that much more love. Yeah. We just met this morning, man. Yeah. Yeah. No. So that's great. Thank you for sharing your perspective on mentorship. I will just say for you, though, you defined it exactly the way I would have, which is that always trying to be at those people that are the next level so that you can get the hand up. In fact, I found myself in similar situations that you have, where a lot of times I feel like I'm helping a ton of people, but I need somebody to help me. And that's kind of where I ended up joining some mentorship groups, because I believe that you can seriously collapse your sector. Right. This is what I tell people that come to me. I'm like, if it took me 36 months to build the portfolio, can we build it for you in half the time? If we did, bro, like. You will. You will. That's the that's the that's the purpose of what you're doing and being consistent. I've been doing what I've been doing since 2012. Yeah. Consistently. I've been driving the same Maserati. You know, I haven't even traded the Maserati yet. I got the same Maserati. I mean, I've been doing the same thing. And you know, and I'm very, you know, thankful for just the opportunities that I have. It's not about money. It's not about prestige. It's about the legacy. It's about what we leave on people. And I know I'm a I'm a very affectionate person. If you meet me and you really experience me as a person, you'll never forget it. Yeah. You never forget it because we don't have that much fun. I make life fun because life is life is a month. Yeah. Let's call it. Let's call it out. I love the energy, man, because, I mean, I think that's what a lot of people don't necessarily you know, life gets them down and then it's woe is me. The sky is falling. And oh, my God. And they live in that moment. Right. It's OK to have that moment, but it's not OK to live for me when I get when I had that moment because I'm human. I have those moments. I'm always searching for my happy 100 percent. Always searching every second, every minute, every conversation, every business venture. I'm looking for the happy place. So for me, it starts in the morning. I start. I start with prayer first thing in the morning before I talk to my wife, before I talk to anybody. I'm talking to God first and I'm looking for that happy place within me and him. Hey, God, just let the day be what it is. Make sure I come across good people, good energy. And just saying that it reminds me of my happy place. Right. And then from there, that's all I'm looking for. Prayer meditation. I got my therapy. I got my, you know, I got I got music playlist that's out of this world that I use music as another form of therapy. And it really is like there's music that can just, OK, I'm better now. Yeah. Right now. A hundred percent, bro. Yeah. And I have those go to's and I and I teach those to people. I teach them how to use them. Yeah. Everybody have them. But how do we use them? Damn. How do we use them? That is it's a science. It is a science. Yeah. It's not rocket science, but it is a science. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. No. Having having people out there, you know, cheerleading and helping kind of line out the path is huge. Let me ask you this. Yes. Given the fact that, you know, everything you stepped out and now here you are, how would you say that you are staying adaptable and flexible, like with the changeable business environment and everything that's going around? Learning. Always got my eyes open to learn. I always got the young people around because the young people make the world around. So it's always important to have young people around, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm that kind of person. I'm hip. I'm hip. I'm one of those kind of people. I can I can be the life of the party at a at an eight year old party all the way up to a six year old. I can I can entertain a 60 year old, too. Yeah. OK. So and everything in between, that's that's how you stay relatable is keeping your eyes and your nose into that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's that's awesome, man. I love it. We kind of touched on this, but I just wanted to ask more specifically, how did you handle any periods of significant doubt or failure? I mean, you kind of just talked about it, but like, you know, how do you process that? That is a great question because it still happens. I am human. I want you to know that I am human. And, you know, I just believe that, you know, even those dark times, they're far and few in between when you learn how to process information better. So for me, when I had those moments, like more frequent, my number one thing was prayer, man. Like I always needed a place to go where I while I feel heard, you know, saying because I believe in prayer. That's the number one thing you have to believe. So I believe in prayer. You know, I'm saying I might not follow the whole religious doctrine far as, you know, Jesus, you know, to the cross, I might not go all the way there, which I'm just keeping it real. But I definitely believe in God as the source, like God is a creator of heaven and earth. That God is. That's real. I know that's so real. You know how we get there. I mean, you know, I got my own philosophy on how that goes. But to each his own part of my philosophy is understanding to each his own. I don't have it again. I don't have no. I'm not a judge. I have black on today, but I don't judge people for what, you know, what was good early direction for them. Yeah. If that makes sense. It does. So so that's what I use. I mean, and that's why I'm talking about it as much as you know, as much as I want your listeners to hear prayer is the antidote. Like there's not much more that journaling is second. Like I'm an avid journaler. I believe journaling is another way, a great way to process doubt, process information, process, just things in general, writing it down, being able to look at and say, OK, this is what it is. This is how I'm feeling. This is what I'm going to do about it. And then shelve it, deal with it accordingly. And then being able to come back at that and look at that and be like, OK, in that moment, this is how I was feeling. This is what happened. And this is what I did to overcome it. And then what it does is it builds reinforcement in our minds, in our brains. That's how we create habits, habits. Just like it took a habit to get negative, like, man, wake up, man. Here we go again. In person. To do that is a habit. It took you some time. Some people let you down. A few people let you down. A couple of things, a couple of circumstances bothered you to the point where now that's within you. Right? So now we got to get that out of you. We got to get that out of you because all that's doing is killing you. It's killing you. It's not doing nothing for whoever, the people around you. Nobody really cares. So for me, I learned to be more happy, more smiling because people care about those people more. Yeah. Yeah. Again, it makes it more compatible, right? Like, I mean, even when we called each other today for the first time, never talked before we met through the app and instantly, you know, we started talking and the vibe just picked up quick, like it was instantaneous, bro. I feel like we on the front line together because this recovery work that we're doing is definitely like, you know, like you're helping people share their message about entrepreneurship, bro. That's recovery. That's a sense of recovery. That's a sense of therapy for people because this shit, this entrepreneurial shit, it ain't easy, man. No. And I'm saying 90%, 99.9% of people wish they had a therapy with, that came along with being an entrepreneur. And this is therapy. Being able to talk about, talk about the journey, look back, oh man, that's therapy for people. So, shout out to you, bro, for doing the work, helping the work get done. That's why the vibe was instant because I recognize a frontline worker when I see one. Amen. Thanks for that, brother. Right? You on the front line, my brother. You on the front line. You got your bandage. You got your water. You making sure there's war. You making sure we got resources. And I appreciate you. I want to salute you for that. Yeah. I appreciate it, man. I really do. Thank you very much for that. I'm humbled and honored that you would say that. Yes. Yeah. I tell people I genuinely want to see other people succeed. And when I first started on my entrepreneurial journey, I had this moment where I was literally driving down the road. And funny thing is, I was probably driving through the state of Oregon because I was leaving Monterey, California on my way up to Seattle, Washington. And you had to come to Oregon to do it. Yeah. And I literally was like, why are more people not doing this? Right? No, that's good for you. That's actually good for you because if more people was doing it, then it'd be freaking hard for you. Well, I agree with that statement as well. But I also want to touch base on what you just said, right? Which is that I think a lot of people, it's simply overwhelming. It's just simply overwhelming. Right. And it's like, where do you start? It's this is what I tell people. It's like going into a hoarder's house and you can't see shit. There's not even a place to walk. You're walking on trash. But then finally, somebody comes in and they clear a pathway. And now somebody else can come in and say, wait, I actually see there's a bookshelf over there behind all that stuff. Now I'm going to start putting some shit away. And now I see that there's a closet over here. You know what I mean? But a lot of people can't see past that. And that's the strength that I bring. Right. And I'm like, listen, I can see the vision. I see the pathway. Let's go. Let's get this thing done. But not everybody's there cheerleading like that. You know what I mean? That's good. And that's actually good for us because it gives us work. We have never ending work. We have a never ending workload because our job is to turn those people around one podcast at a time, one therapy session at a time, one whatever. It's what I look at. Like, and if I can do that, that's my goal. My goal every day is to put a smile on one person's face. Man, I say it in my groups like that's part of my check in. Like I ask people to give me one thing that you're working on. Give me a goal that you're working on. Give me a move to describe how you feel, because this is important that we got to learn how to describe how we feel as human beings. We don't know how to do that. That's important that we learn that I want to know a goal. And then I want to know one thing that you're thankful for all in the same checking, right? Because to me, that's a great that's a great recipe for a recovery journey for somebody. OK, you got to learn to be grateful. Just life in itself is something to be grateful for. Count your blessings. Counting your blessings leads you to your happy place. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I also spend time in scripture. But one of the first things I do is I always give thanks. Thanks that I'm up. I just woke up, man. Thanks that I'm up. Thanks for this cup of coffee. Come on, man. Thanks for this robe. And then once you do that, don't that put a smile on your face? For me, that gives me the ultimate smile because I'm really thankful. I'm very happy. I do got the opportunity. I got my vision. I can see I'm in good health. I got a beautiful woman laying next to me. I got children prospering. Things are just happening, right? It's something to smile about. 100%. And I think I mentioned to you very briefly that I had served in the service. And one of the things that I'm grateful for about my time in the service is I've been to some pretty shitty places and it really causes massive reflection. And I'm not talking about just war zones. I'm talking about people that are living in extreme poverty. Like I grew up in pretty bad poverty. We lived in a tent at one point. But then I go to other people and they're literally defecating in the road. And I'm like, bro, this dude ain't wasted. He's just... Anyway, that's a separate story for another day. So yeah, I love it, man. I got a couple more questions. And I want to ask you these couple of questions. Hey, you got me until the end, bro. Let's go. So how do you manage the balance between personal life and the demands of running this business and your family? You know, I'm still out to lunch. I'm out to lunch. I'm still looking for healthy ways as an entrepreneur, as a family man, as having all those things in order. I'm out of order a lot of the time. And, you know, the advice I would give to a person that's seeking to be involved with a person like me, you've got to have that grace and mercy. I'm so blessed to have what I have. Like, that's what I'm saying. I count my blessings. My wife, I've been with her since we've been knowing each other since seventh grade. So we've been together since, you know, high school, Eric, got a 27-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son. So she understands me. She understands. She lets me be busy. And then she lets me, you know, and I let her be her. I let, you know, when she says it's family time, what you think that means? There's no phones. There's no electronics. It's all, ma'am, yes, ma'am. And I do it with a smile. I give them just as much energy, if not more than I would give to just, you know, any regular person. But it still is a very unequal balance sometimes, I would say, like being honest, talking about it, reflecting on it. I could definitely be better at that. Let me ask you this question. I feel like I struggle sometimes too, not sometimes, actually quite frequently if I'm being super vulnerable. I know that one of my struggles is because when I start digging into these problems and solving them and working, like I don't want to stop. You know what I mean? It's not that I don't love my family. It's not that I don't want to spend time with them. But I'm just like, I want to get it done, right? And I also get excited about certain aspects of it. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I think the best thing to do is like, you know, what's working for me now is to actually, you know, I schedule my family time almost like business. Like it's almost like a meeting. I schedule that time and then I have it programmed online. When it's family time, it's family time. I know I can't take a call from whoever just because, you know, leave a message and call me back. Like it's family time. This is their scheduled time. It's like if I was like right now meeting with you, this is a meeting in a sense. I'm not going to just pick up a phone in the middle of the, you know what I mean? It's the same. It's the same energy. And if you and once you learn to do that and produce that and if she can't respect you for that, then you might have to rethink who you're talking to or who you land up with or whatever you want to call it, because if she can't respect a busy man, what she wants you to go work a nine to five and come home and, you know, and be depressed. No, a successful man equals a hardworking beyond 40 hours a week, man. OK, yeah, yeah, yes. No, listen, I actually I appreciate what you just said, and I'll tell you why. It's because it's one of those things that although I know what you just said, hearing it from another person on a new day is a friendly reminder to me that to keep my shit straight, right, because I tend to fall backwards, you know, don't let nobody don't let nobody throw you off your block, bro. Don't let nobody throw you off your block. They're a distraction if they do if they don't if they don't encourage you to be like me, get on and get on and get on it. Then it's a distraction. Yeah. So with that, let me ask this next question. And we're going to kind of wind down here after this one. But advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, what advice would you give somebody who's thinking about starting a business? Perfect question, because it reminded me of what I want to say to you. There you go. Entrepreneurship is all about delegation. OK, it is a team sport. You've got to learn that you've got to learn to work with people. If you're doing everything yourself, you almost you almost setting yourself up for failure. OK, you've got to have people that's professional enough to do their jobs. You've got to trust people just because you get food poisoning. You don't stop eating. Right. So you 100. So you pick a new place to eat. You might pick someone else to whatever. But it's the same thing in business. You might get burned by a few people in business, but you don't stop doing business. You don't stop seeking, you know, HR department. You don't stop seeking people that do the reception part of the job, the calls, the back end work. You got to have somebody doing that. If you're doing it yourself, you're wrong. Dude, I absolutely love your response to the question, and I'm going to tell you why. When I came out, I came out of guns a blazing. And because of my work ethic and because of my passion and my grit, my determination, my tenacity, I was like, I got this. Right. But here's what I quickly realized. No, you don't. No, you don't. And and multiple businesses that I had created started failing. And I was like, it doesn't matter. Again, back to the earlier comment. There's 24 hours in a day. You use them how you deem worthy. But at the end of the day, there's still only 24. So I ended up getting myself in a position where there was plates falling off of the end of the runway, you know, of the conveyor belt. Hello. And this is what I told my let me share this one little piece with you. This is what I told my wife, because one day I snapped at her. Right. And it wasn't right. But I'm just telling you what happened legitimately. Right. She's like, what are you doing today? And I was like, what do you mean, what am I doing today? I'll tell you what I'm doing today. This is what I told her. I said, there are there's a fire in the house and there's 10 people in there and only six of them can be saved. Four people will die today. Dammit. And I'm telling you right now, I have to decide which six of my savings. That's what I'm dealing with every single day. I like right now. I was apologetic after that because I was quite feisty when I delivered that message to her. But the point that I was trying to to to give her visualization is like every single day, something's falling down because I back to the point of the question, I had task saturated myself. It wasn't sustainable. It doesn't matter what I was doing. I couldn't do it. So I love your response about not only delegation, but making sure that you have the individuals in the right positions to carry out the task. And if they're not being ready to replace them and just look at it like that, don't don't don't don't look at like, well, man, OK, I got to do this myself. No, you got to find somebody to replace that person, you know what I'm saying? Because you're nothing. Yeah, you're nothing until other people are talking about. Well, here's another nugget. Here's another nugget, brother, that I don't even remember who said it. It might have been PVD, Patrick Bat Davis or something. I can't remember. But it resonated with me big time. This was about six to nine months ago. And they said, you need to be slow to hire and quick to fire. And I was like, bro, come on, a hundred thousand percent, you know, but because I was struggling so badly, what I was doing is, is I was letting people that were not being value added to the organization stay because I was just like, if we move it a couple inches, great. What I didn't realize is it wasn't great. That's everybody. I think everybody listening to the right now, most of the people that's listening to you, they think they can tell the same story, brother. I can tell it for sure. And it's just one of those things that you're going to continue to do until you don't do it no more. And your time is coming. Like our time came and I'm pretty sure, you know what I'm saying? And that that for me was the missing piece was was learning how to really let people do their job. Like I got a video created to shout out to Ocean Tree Creative. I got to get in there because we're here because of them. And Ocean Tree is the that's the new way, man. They do all of the production for me. You know, all I got to do is this with you. And then this will come out on all platforms. It'll be pretty and it'll have bells and whistles on it. OK, I love them. So shout out to Ocean Tree Creative, guys. Yes, we got to get in there. Yeah, I second that notion, man. Yeah, it's got that's it's a team sport. Yeah, absolutely. Look, man, I'm super thankful, super grateful that you would come on on such short notice. Love the energy. I love hearing your story. I know 100 percent it's going to resonate with somebody else. Absolutely. And that's the whole point of this show, man, is so that people can look at EA and say, bro, if he can do it from that position, why am I not doing it? So I really appreciate that. With that said, I want to offer you an opportunity. How can people get in touch with you? Like what platforms are you on? What's your email? What's your website? Like go ahead and spill the beans and let everybody know how they can get in touch with you if they want to reach out and talk to EA. So look, the fastest way I have a digital business card, it's CEOEA.com and it all speaks for itself. Everything that I'm doing is right there. You can pick your pick your platform. But I really want to before I go, I want to just really share affirmations for recovery. This is a journal that I put out for the recovery community. And it's really it's a day by day. It's a work publication. We go we go day by day, day one all the way to day 30. OK, and we talk about recovery. We talk about, you know, a healthy word of the day. It's about affirmations. It's about unlearning and relearning. You can get this product exclusively on Amazon. And it's a link on my website, EricAllenRecovery.shop, also on my digital. But EricAllenRecovery.shop, get a hold of this, leave a review. Support is the action word, guys. Love it. So real quick, what's that what's that run on Amazon? Are you are you OK to say that? It is. I believe it's $15 with the shipping. And what's the title again? Affirmations for Recovery. If you type all that in one word, I believe it should be the first thing you see. Affirmations for Recovery. Look, I believe in the law of reciprocity, brother. Here's what I'm going to say. We're recording this this this podcast today. It's probably going to launch in a couple of weeks from now after Brian and crew does their things for the people listening to this podcast show. The first five people you go to EA's YouTube channel and my YouTube channel and you subscribe, the first five people that send me a screenshot of that and social media, I'll buy you a copy of EA's book. Let's go. Let's go. That's easy. That's easy peasy. Yeah. Yes. So, like you said, ain't nothing but clicking on that button that helps us kind of build momentum and show people out there. But in return for that favor, I'm happy to donate the first five people that do that and send a proof of action. And so I can support your business, brother. Yami 2024 for president. I want you in the box, man. Appreciate you, man. I really do. Again, thanks for the short notice of coming on and my pleasure. You have a you have a blessed day, brother. You too, sir. Peace, peace.